Here are some awesome TTRPGs you may have missed in 2021

There are a lot of games in the world, and nobody is going to know about all of them. I, for example, likely don’t know a lot about your favorite game(s)! But to help spread some knowledge (and fun), I wanted to put together a list of a few TTRPGs for you that you may have missed this year. I’m sticking to more indie games, because I feel like Pathfinder 2, Starfinder, Dungeons & Dragons and such don’t really need the help — but they’re all fantastic TTRPGs as well.

If you have one you really loved that I haven’t mentioned here, please do add them in the comments!

Wanderhome

I honestly had no idea what to think about Wanderhome when I first heard about it — it reminds me of stories like the Redwall series or the amazing Usagi Yojimbo comic, featuring no dice or game master, like the collaborative story aspect of the Belonging Outside Belonging system. This is a game that I really feel brings a whole different vibe, and that fascinates me.

I’ve seen it compared to a tabletop version of Animal Crossing but it seems like more than that — there’s a kind of lovely elegiac feeling to Wanderhome you don’t get in Animal Crossing, but I understand why the comparison exists. This isn’t a “go around murdering stuff for loots” game, it’s much more a road story, one that can have danger and wonder but finds as much to say in small moments as sweeping ones. If that appeals to you like it did to me, you can pick up a copy from Possum Creek Games.

Galactic 2e

If the Belonging Outside Belonging system sounds cool to you and you also really want to play a Star Wars-inspired RPG, then Galactic 2e is one to check out. Just like Wanderhome, it’s a narrative-focused RPG that tailors its game engine to that narrative, but that experience is inspired by a big-budget space opera. There’s a distinct feel to Galactic 2e, and it’s one I’m super interested in. I can imagine tinkering with it to create a specific space opera setting all my own, or doing so with the help of the entire group of players, each bringing a new archetype/playbook to the table and defining the setting in so doing.

Galactic 2e is available from their itch.io storefont, and is created by Riley Rethal.

ARC: Doom Tabletop RPG

Another quirky and unique title, ARC: Doom Tabletop RPG, is a game about the end of the world and how to stop it — or maybe not. The Doomsday Clock mechanic by itself is intriguing, and in general this is a game that does not feel like anything else out there — it kind of showcases how the rules and settings can be engineered together to tell a very specific kind of story, and I’m kind of shocked it didn’t exist before this past year. It’s a beautifully illustrated game about the worst day the world will ever have and the very slim chance that you can cancel the apocalypse.

It feels like a mashup of Tanith Lee and Tim Powers to me, but in a very good way. Definitely check it out. You can buy ARC directly from its itch.io storefront website. 

CBR+PNK

Okay, so I loved Cyberpunk 2077 this year, and I’ve been a fan of R. Talsorian Games’ various editions of Cyberpunk over the years, from Cyberpunk 2020 to Cyberpunk RED. But there are different ways to do a cyberpunk RPG, and one of my favorites this year is CBR+PNK, a game that uses the Forged in the Dark system from Blades in the Dark to craft one shot sessions that get a lot closer to the somewhat fatalistic, almost nihilistic beast at the heart of the genre. Each session of CBR+PNK is a one shot, a game constructed to be the last run of a group of runners. Either they make a score and retire or, more likely, most or all of them die in the attempt. It’s just bleak in a very specific way that feels true to the genre, and isn’t as nostalgic as other such games.

As you might expect for a game embracing that mesh of technology and punk, CBR+PNK is available to buy from Emanoel Melo directly — it’s also on Drive Thru RPG as well.

#iHunt

This one is my cheat game. #iHunt came out in 2020 and got good buzz, but not enough people have really heard of it, and I think in a way it’s a real sleeper that deserves more attention. It’s a game that asks a very simple question — what if the gig economy extended to monster hunting? You play the equivalent of an Uber driver except instead of driving people around or picking up food for them at a restaurant, you take gigs to find and kill things like werewolves, squamous horrors, walking dead and so on. It’s a job, not a calling — you’re doing it because you have the app and a bit of facility with cutting down the denizens of the dark, not because you want to be doing it.

This game is a really excellent critique of the world we’ve made for people, the one where you’re just trying to stay afloat even if it means breaking in to a mad scientist’s lab to keep his corpse golem from getting out. It really deserves your attention. Filamena Young and Olivia Hill have made a game that really captures the moment we’re living through by exaggerating it just enough.

You can get #iHunt at Drive Thru RPG or itch.io and I heartily recommend you do.